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3.6m ‘shell pages’ on Facebook, Instagram found primed for scams after S’pore police tip-off: Meta

Meta and Singapore Police dismantle 3.6 million scam shell pages on Facebook and Instagram, disrupting fraud networks and protecting users in 2026. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The Straits TimesDavid Sun2026-09-23 09:00查看原文 ↗

Meta took action against 3.64 million such ‘shell pages’ in July.

Published Sep 23, 2026, 09:00 AM

Updated Sep 23, 2026, 09:00 AM

Meta, with information from the Singapore Police Force, found and dismantled 3.6 million dormant 'shell pages' on Facebook and Instagram.

From January to June 2026, Meta and SPF acted against 33,600 e-commerce fraud entities and 113,000 scam accounts that were mostly involved in investment scams.

SPF's new Cyber Command and Meta's partnership enables proactive disruption of scam networks.

SINGAPORE – The pages lie dormant, appearing silent, empty and harmless with no advertisements or harmful posts.

But in an instant, scammers could make millions of them come to life, orchestrating massive scam campaigns across Facebook and Instagram to trick thousands of unsuspecting victims.

With information from the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Meta, the parent company of the two social media platforms, took action against 3.64 million such “shell pages” in July.

At a press briefing on Sept 22, Meta detailed its enforcement actions taken against scam networks from January to June 2026.

It said over the past two years, it had built an information partnership with SPF, which helps Meta’s investigators identify and dismantle entire ecosystems of scammers.

In the first half of 2026, this collaboration led to action against 113,000 scam-linked accounts and pages on Facebook and Instagram, 33,600 e-commerce fraud entities and the 3.6 million shell pages before they could be deployed.

Flagged by SPF as an emerging threat vector, these shell pages are created by syndicates to sit empty and appear indistinguishable from legitimate pages, allowing them to age without triggering security flags for new accounts.

“Shell pages” are created by syndicates to sit empty and appear indistinguishable from legitimate pages, allowing them to age without triggering security flags for new accounts. PHOTO: META

“Shell pages” are created by syndicates to sit empty and appear indistinguishable from legitimate pages, allowing them to age without triggering security flags for new accounts.

Once activated, the pages interact with one another to build a false appearance of legitimacy before launching coordinated scam campaigns across social media platforms.

Scams continue to be a problem in Singapore, with 16,821 cases reported in the first half of 2026 and victims losing over $410 million.

Aside from disrupting scams before they can happen, Meta has also worked with the police to dismantle scam operations.

Daryl Poon, director of law enforcement outreach for the Asia-Pacific region at Meta, said that for each suspicious entity or page flagged by the police, Meta acted against four more.

This led to it addressing more than 113,000 entities and pages connected to frauds and scams on Facebook and Instagram in the first half of 2026.

Most were involved in investment scams.

In June, in anticipation of the school holidays and the seasonal rise in scams, Meta and SPF conducted an enhanced disruption operation focused on e-commerce scams, taking action against more than 33,600 entities.

These were scams that promoted misleading pricing, fake promotional tactics for well-known brands, with exaggerated product claims.

Meta has also removed 65 million scam ads on Facebook and Instagram so far in 2026 , detecting 94 per cent of them before users reported them.

Poon said the collaboration with the SPF has helped Meta identify threats and act on them quickly, dismantling the scam networks before they can reach more people.

He said: “This is what effective collaboration looks like. Not just responding to scams after the fact, but proactively going after the infrastructure behind them.”

The SPF’s new Cyber Command, which was set up in July , targets scammers before they can reach victims here.

The commander of Cyber Command, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Wong, said tackling sophisticated scam networks requires a collaboration with international and private stakeholders.

He said: “This recent operation demonstrates the power of police and private sector collaboration – scam infrastructure was decisively taken down, cutting off scammers’ ability to defraud Singaporeans.

“SPF will work with Meta and other online service providers to expand data sharing and strengthen scam disruption efforts.”

David Sun is The Straits Times’ crime correspondent. He has a background in criminology and is a licensed private investigator.

Internet crimes and scams

Meta 在 7 月份对 364 万个此类“空壳页面”采取了行动。

发布于 2026 年 9 月 23 日上午 9:00

更新于2026年9月23日上午9:00

Meta公司利用新加坡警方提供的信息，在Facebook和Instagram上发现了360万个休眠的“空壳页面”，并将其关闭。

从 2026 年 1 月到 6 月，Meta 和 SPF 对 33,600 个电子商务欺诈实体和 113,000 个诈骗账户采取了行动，这些账户大多涉及投资诈骗。

SPF新成立的网络司令部与Meta的合作能够主动打击诈骗网络。

新加坡——这些页面处于休眠状态，看起来安静、空洞且无害，没有任何广告或有害帖子。

但骗子们只需片刻就能让数百万个这样的骗局活过来，在 Facebook 和 Instagram 上策划大规模诈骗活动，欺骗成千上万毫无戒心的受害者。

根据新加坡警察部队 (SPF) 提供的信息，这两个社交媒体平台的母公司 Meta 在 7 月份对 364 万个此类“空壳页面”采取了行动。